Page:A Sailor Boy with Dewey.djvu/253

Rh "Take the small-arms over to port," ordered Watt Brown. "They'll be coming out through the woods in less than ten minutes."

"Another boat is putting off from the junk!" exclaimed Dan, who had picked up the glasses.

"Six, seven, eight, nine men are coming over in her! And they have a small gun on board!"

"Seven and nine make sixteen," I said. "Sixteen to four are pretty big odds."

"Yis, but we are afther havin' the advantage of position," returned Matt Gory. "Brown, can't ye be afther blowin' that second boat skyhoigh wid th' howitzer?"

"I can try," answered the second mate.

He had already reloaded the piece, and as the second small boat came closer he began to sight the gun.

"There is a flag of truce!" cried Dan, as an officer in the boat held up a white handkerchief by two of the corners.

"We don't recognize any flag of truce!" cried Watt Brown. "I'll show 'em that none o' their dirty Chinese tricks will work on me!"

And rushing around he found a big red blanket and swung it defiantly to the breeze. For several seconds the Chinamen refused to recognize the return signal, but then the white handkerchief dropped and the second small boat came to a lazy roll on the long waves.